- CINCINNATI (Reuters) - A
15-year-old black youth pleaded innocent on Wednesday to a hate crime charge
growing out of an attack on a white truck driver during last month's rioting
in Cincinnati.
-
- The unidentified youth, the first black to be charged
with ethnic intimidation in the violence, was arrested on Tuesday night
along with an unidentified 14-year-old black youth. Both were charged with
aggravated rioting and robbery in connection with the same attack, but
only the older youth drew the hate crime charge.
-
- The April disturbances erupted after a white policeman
shot and killed a black man sought on misdemeanor charges, fueling long-simmering
suspicions that the city's blacks were being targeted by police.
-
- The policeman said he thought the unarmed suspect, who
he chased into a dark alley, was reaching for a gun. More than 800 arrests
were made during the week of violence that followed.
-
- Jon Esther, a spokesman for the county prosecutor's office,
said the boys who appeared in court on Wednesday were in a gang of about
20 youths who dragged the victim from his truck and pummeled him in broad
daylight during the most violent day of the disturbances, April 10
-
- Magistrate Constance Murdock of Hamilton County Court
set a hearing date of June 6 for the younger boy and June 8 for the older
one after both pleaded not guilty to all charges. She ordered them to remain
in juvenile custody pending the hearings.
-
- Esther told Reuters that prosecutors would seek to have
the case against the older boy given to a grand jury in adult court. Both
boys were also charged with overturning a street hot-dog stand and stealing
money from the vendor on the same day, Esther said.
-
- A 20-year-old white man has already been indicted on
the same ethnic intimidation charge for allegedly throwing a brick through
the window of a car driven by a black man.
-
- County Prosecutor Mike Allen said he expected several
more arrests from the truck driver incident, which was caught on tape and
widely televised.
-
- The victim, Robert Stearns, 34, of suburban Louisville,
Kentucky, told police that the youths were shouting, ``Kill Whitey'' when
they attacked him, Esther said.
|
